Pizer argues persuasively that Weltliteratur can provide cohesion to the study of
World Literature today. In his view, traditional "World Lit" classes are limited by
their focus on the universal elements of literature. A course based on Weltliteratur,
however, promotes a more thorough understanding of literature as a dialectic between
the universal and the particular. In a practical guide to teaching World Literature
by employing Goethe's paradigm, he explains how to help students navigate between
the extremes of homogenization on the one hand and exoticism on the other, learning
both what cultures share.